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Crossing my arms over my chest, I watch her wander around the main living space of the cabin. She trails her fingers over the black leather couch placed in front of the fireplace, then makes her way over to the mantel to examine the photos lined up there.
She pauses in front of one and grabs it, bringing it closer to her face before she turns it toward me. “Was this from that night?”
That night.
Raelynn doesn’t need to get more specific. We both know exactly when she’s referring to. It’s haunted me, my failure that night, letting her walk away and disappear from my life.
I nod slowly. “Yep.”
And I have the photo memorized by heart—the eight of us. Best friends since kindergarten, all sitting around the bonfire the last night before she left, the first one of us to go off to college.
“Wow.” She flutters her fingers over it. “That was a long time ago.”
“It was and it wasn’t.”
She sets it back on the mantel, then turns toward me. “What do you mean?”
This would be a good time to keep my mouth shut, to lock away what has been buried safely for so long, but looking at that same mane of dark hair spilling over her shoulders, those hazel eyes almost the color of rich honey, it’s impossible for me to lie to her.
Even if it might save my heart.
“I’ve missed you.”
Her shoulders slump slightly, and she gives me a sad smile. “I’ve missed you, too.”
As much as I appreciate the words, the same pain in my chest that hits me each time I think about her comes right back. “You could’ve called, written, emailed, sent a carrier pigeon.”
Her perfect pink lips curl up slightly. “I could have. I’m sorry I didn’t.”
I stare down at my boots rather than at her when I say this because if she sees what a fucking sap I am, she’ll probably run the out fuck of here—again. “Why’d you kiss me and then leave?”
She releases a heavy sigh, and I look up as she wanders over to the couch and lowers herself onto it. Her slender shoulders rise and fall. “Because I was a fool. Because I was seventeen, about to turn eighteen and start my new life in the big city, and I felt like if I didn’t do it then, I never would.”
“You should’ve stayed a little longer at the party.”
Rae hesitates for a moment, her smile saddening. “You know what would’ve happened if I had.”
We both do.
It’s my turn to offer a shrug. “Would that have been so bad?”
Her bottom lip trembles slightly. “It would have because I might not have been able to leave if I had done what I wanted to that night.”
CHAPTER TWO
RAELYNN
It’s as much of an admission of how I’ve always felt about Jax as I’ve ever given him, and his strong, hard features soften as he takes the words in. He squeezes his eyes closed and releases a deep, heavy sigh I can feel all the way across the room before he pushes off the door and advances toward me slowly.
His skin still slick with sweat and the beer I managed to pour all over him, Jax towers over me—a massive, intimidating man full of confidence and swagger, not the boy he was all those years ago. But that uncertain, shy kid still lives under it—and in his uncertain gaze.
I look away, staring down at my hands now that I’ve made that confession to probably the only boy I’ve ever truly loved.
He stops in front of me and lowers himself onto the coffee table—which somehow manages to support his weight—so his knees brush mine. “You know, I was in love with you since we were five.”
I jerk my head up and let my eyes meet his crystal-blue ones. “What?”
He gives me a sad smile. “I always knew you were out of my league. You were the valedictorian, head cheerleader, most popular girl in school. Everyone knew you were going places. But me”—he shrugs—“I was just the dumb, skinny football player who was never going to leave Hayes Creek. That’s why I never said anything, never told you.”
